Page 8

8

NOT QUITE DEAD AFTER ALL

Darina

There was nothing for a while, but now? Pain. So much pain.

My first breath comes labored, unnatural. Inside me, I feel a pulse, beating harder than ever, but it sounds wrong to my own ears. Unfamiliar. Cold and harsh and sharp.

I blink and find myself looking into his eyes, dark blue, flecked with those infinite stars, that whole galaxy.

But while it's Ryther, it's also something else. Something darker.

"You're all right," he whispers, bringing my head to his chest.

I hear his heart against mine, deep and steady and so strangely familiar.

But something is wrong.

I'm wrong.

Both too strong and weak all at once. I barely recognize the thing in my skin.

"You'll be all right," he assures me, standing with me in his arms.

And it must be the truth, or he couldn't say it.

"How?" I manage in a labored breath.

I shouldn't be all right. I shouldn't be here at all. My hand flies to my chest, expecting a gaping wound.

And there is something there. The skin is harder and smoother, slightly elevated. It's a scar.

How did I scar?

My heart races.

So hard.

So strong.

How am I alive?

"Loch?" I ask Ryther, fear tightening in my belly.

He snorts. "Well, last I heard, securing your throne while I came to take care of this."

This meaning me .I’m no longer dead, somehow.

Memories fly back to the forefront of my mind. The hunt. The arrow, with the iron tip. Ryther. His mouth, his hands, his cock, splitting me as he drives it in.

Then, my parents.

"Rachel. My sister. Is she?—"

I’m about to say safe , but something stirs beneath my subconscious, distracting me. Something strong, slithering like a snake in the grass.

"Are you going to ask after everyone but yourself?"

Right. He has a point. "How am I alive?"

"No thanks to you."

I seem to notice something in the depth of his eyes. A shift that feels both cold and cruel. And then it's gone.

"There were things in the heart of Ilvaris. It's believed they're the origin of the creation of this universe.They've gone by many names, but on the ironside, you would have called them gods."

Gods .

I'm starting to understand where this is going.

"You asked for their help? They healed me?"

"Nobody ever helps, Darina. Not without a price."

He's evasive, and dread coils inside me. Before I can press him, Ryther says:

"They wished to be freed. You're harboring the All Goddess inside you. I have her opposite, the Undoing."

The… what ?

My heart beats faster yet as I struggle to sit up, a sharp pain pulsing through my body.

"Don't move. You've just had…open heart surgery? I gave you a numbing draught, but you need rest."

I look around me, confused. I'm in his arms, and he's walking in the darkening shadows of trees.

"You can go to sleep, or I can make you."

The threat is clear in his voice, and all of a sudden, I want to snap. To wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze at the affront. But I am exhausted. And safe. And by some miracle, alive.

So I give into the void pulling me down with a contented sigh.